Welcome to a new series focused on teacher printables for classroom teachers. Ever wish you could just grab-n-go content that you could print and use tomorrow (or today)? Let’s take a look at this series of Science Supplemental Aids.
Science Supplemental Aids To the Rescue
There is a big difference between giving students a page packed with facts and giving them a visual cue that helps them retrieve something they already learned. This new collection tries to address that gap.
Filling the gap behind this new collection of Middle School Science Supplemental Aids for grades six through eight. The printables use mnemonics, diagrams, particle models, formula triangles, and other visual cues connected to science concepts students are expected to understand.
What’s more, you will find student activity packets for each of the 26 different aid cards.
One important note: these materials are classroom supports for teaching and learning. When used as formal testing accommodations, supplemental aids must meet current TEA requirements, be locally approved, and be routinely used by eligible students during instruction.
Here are five ways to put the collection to work.
1. Reinforce Matter and Energy
Students can revisit states of matter, particle motion, physical and chemical changes, evidence of chemical reactions, and conservation of mass. Colorful particle models make some fairly abstract ideas easier to see. And, you get activity packets with each.
You will find the following:
- Atomic Structure
- Elements, Compounds, and Mixtures
- Metals, Nonmetals, and Metalloids
- States of Matters
- Physical Properties of Matter
- Chemical Formulas
- Chemical Changes
Each of these is a quick cue for this type of content.
2. Make Force and Motion More Visual
Formula triangles for average speed and force provide quick retrieval cues. Other printables focus on Newton’s laws, heat transfer, and wave properties. Note that student activity packets you can print and use right away are available with each cue card.
The goal is not to replace understanding. The visual should help students retrieve the relationship they already know.
3. Give Earth and Space a Picture
Plate boundaries, rock layers, weather systems, star life cycles, and galaxy types all benefit from diagrams. A student may forget a paragraph but remember what two colliding plates looked like. You can find some for the following:
- Plate boundaries
- Phases of the Moon
- Weather Systems and the Water Cycle
4. Connect Living Systems
The Organisms and Environments collection includes cells, photosynthesis, ecological succession, food chains, and food webs. These work well during stations, intervention, or quick review. You can find them for:
- Cell structures
- Photosynthesis
- Food Chains and Food Webs
5. Build the Cue Before Test Day
The most useful supplemental aid is one students already recognize. Introduce a card during instruction. Use it again during retrieval practice, quizzes, and review. Let students explain what each visual means.
The goal is that when it’s time to assess, the printable is no longer new information. It is a familiar cue connected to learning they have already done.
But Wait, What About Formula Triangles?
You will also find a variety of formula triangles blended in, each with its own student activity packet, and available for printing as PDF. I don’t know about you, but this first one has to be the formula I have most often taken advantage of as an adult:
There are more online at the site, of course. Each student activity packet comes with activities, as well as an ACE It activity. You also get a teacher key.